I just did a BitInstant the other day and it was 'doable' but not quite anonymous and a little too cumbersome for the average techie guy that likes to stay at home to make purchased (me). So i guess there is a market for it, that's for sure.

After the price spike a few days ago I quickly checked out the ebay sellers. And not one of them was cheaper than the mtgox ask.Unfortunately bitinstant is not cheap either.

Anyone building up a speculative position must go through mtgox or one of the small exchanges reflecting true market prices. Paying even 10% extra now will amount to thousand$ lost through having less BTC in the future.

The possibilty to use PayPal will make some people pay a lot more, rather than having to use, say, their bank account to purchase BTC.

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Someone who just wants a bitcoin to play with for journalistic or academic purposes or experimentation also doesn't care about the price as long as the premium he's paying to acquire the coin is realistic.

What's better: overpaying by $10 for 1 BTC if you just want one easy bitcoin now, or worrying about how to go thru BitInstant/MtGox/whatever? If someone considers the time they save by doing eBay and PayPal to be worth more than the time they'd spend learning about how to do it another way (and drive somewhere to complete it), they'll pay eBay and PayPal. It's simple really, the same way hotels will routinely sell minibar snacks and drinks for $5-$10 to people who could get those same things at the grocery down the street for under $2. Some won't pay it, others will.

Companies claiming they got hacked and lost your coins sounds like fraud so perfect it could be called fashionable. I never believe them. If I ever experience the misfortune of a real intrusion, I declare I have been honest about the way I have managed the keys in Casascius Coins. I maintain no ability to recover or reproduce the keys, not even under limitless duress or total intrusion. Remember that trusting strangers with your coins without any recourse is, as a matter of principle, not a best practice. Don't keep coins online. Use paper or hardware wallets instead.

Interesting analogy from the minibars...I'm in the hotel industry. People WILL pay 3xs what something is worth to be lazy...

Yeah, it is 'simple'. The sellers are the ones taking the risk here mostly. Like someone else said, I'm sure there are people who are looking to scam these eBay sellers out of it one way or another. There are always scammers, no matter what.

I'm sure you could actually make a pretty lucrative business out of it. I posted 1 BTC bidding starting at $19 as a 'trial' and I had 36 views in a 24 hour period... I think buyers are looking for Buy it now VS bidding though...

Paypal accounts are easy to steal or buy. Get the associated eBay account, buy a few dozen auctions for BTC at whatever price it goes to, and hand out your BTC addresses once the auctions are finished, raking in a huge amount of BTC and not caring at all when the legitimate account owners look at their Paypal activity and say "WTF is this???" and charge it back.

I've thought about some sort of website for buying Bitcoin with a CC or Paypal that just wouldn't let you have access to them for 180 days. But Bitcoin, I hold them in escrow for 180 days, then you can have them afterward.

Interesting analogy from the minibars...I'm in the hotel industry. People WILL pay 3xs what something is worth to be lazy...

Or they have other priorities. Lazy sounds like a character flaw, minibar customers may resent being seen as lazy. There is nothing inherently wrong or flawed with being willing to pay more for something "where is, as is"... a cold beer in a minibar in front of somebody who wants one, who is willing and able to pay $6 for it, but not willing to spend a half hour going out and getting it, is a beer that is in fact worth $6. There is a value in having acquired and prepared it and placed it in the right place at the right time that goes far beyond the price at a retailer, and selling "overpriced" goods to those willing to pay helps a hotel stay operating profitably with a lower up-front room rate for those who can't pay.

When you know that much of the time, a business is paying the bill and has little say when it comes to the minibar, I'm shocked at the number of hotels I stay in that simply choose not to offer a minibar. Perhaps minibars get scammed the same way BTC sellers could get scammed on eBay, but I can't imagine how in the long run that it still wouldn't be profitable in the face of knowing that a lot of honest people are out there and are honestly still willing to pay a huge markup for convenience.

I'd like to say a beer tastes better when you know you've paid $8 for it, but I'm being facetious and subjective at the same time.

Companies claiming they got hacked and lost your coins sounds like fraud so perfect it could be called fashionable. I never believe them. If I ever experience the misfortune of a real intrusion, I declare I have been honest about the way I have managed the keys in Casascius Coins. I maintain no ability to recover or reproduce the keys, not even under limitless duress or total intrusion. Remember that trusting strangers with your coins without any recourse is, as a matter of principle, not a best practice. Don't keep coins online. Use paper or hardware wallets instead.

Things are worth what people will pay for them, and a lot of people will pay for convenience. Also, scale matters--buying BTC1 at double spot may be the same mistake as buying BTC10,000 in economic terms, but most people won't think of it as the same thing at all.

Wow I have to try this. Makes sense to me that you can sell BTC way over the market price via eBay because of convenience and because people are already familiar with eBay. And you don't HAVE TO accept Paypal or credit cards (I wouldn't)..

Interesting analogy from the minibars...I'm in the hotel industry. People WILL pay 3xs what something is worth to be lazy...

Lazy sounds like a character flaw, minibar customers may resent being seen as lazy.

Lazy may have been a bit harsh, I'm just a really cheap bastard!

Minibars tend to be barely over a wash for the average small to medium sized (boutique/budget) hotel...the guest refutes eating the $4 snickers and $8 beer in then end, they blame it on 'Housekeeping' and argue until it is adjusted or simply claim they didn't know and thought it was free (it's happened believe it or not). We've tried it a few times to failure, sometimes a loss depending on the hotel.

Now, we do maintain mini bars in the higher end hotels. Those guests typically don't fight any charges and are more than welcome to take advantage of convenience over cost. Interesting mindset...not mine.

All this being said, I think the eBay logic isn't a bad idea, and may very well be profitable even with some chargebacks....there just should be a holding period of some kind maybe. You can have a 'handling' period of up to 10 days with eBay...might be the perfect amount time.